We reported earlier that Zimbabwe's opposition was going to court to challenge a police ban on demonstrations for the next two weeks.

The BBC's Brian Hungwe reports from Harare that the case has now been postponed until Wednesday.

In a majority decision, a panel of judges at Zambia's constitutional court decided that the deadline to hear the opposition's challenge to the recent re-election of President Edgar Lungu had passed.

Mr Lungu was re-elected - getting just over 50% of the vote - in the poll held on 11 August.

The UPND party of his main rival Hakainde Hichilema disputed the result and filed a challenge on 19 August.

The law says the constitutional court then has 14 days to finish the case.

The BBC's Meluse Kapatamoyo says that that period was tied up with procedural arguments, and then on Friday Mr Hichilema's legal team walked out of court complaining about a lack of time.

The court then allowed the petitioners to find new legal representation, adjourning the case to Monday.

The court resumed this morning and announced its decision that the deadline for the case had passed on Friday night.

Image source, AFP

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Reuters

South Sudan's government has accepted the deployment of a 4,000 strong regional protection force to beef up the UN peacekeeping mission in the country. 

For weeks now South Sudan's government has been facing intense pressure and the threat of sanctions from the international community for refusing to accept the regional force.  

The government had previously opposed the move saying it amounted to a violation of its sovereignty. 

But it has finally changed its position, and says the additional troops will be allowed into the country.   

This follows Sunday's meeting between President Salva Kiir and a delegation of the United Nations Security Council.

Speaking after the meeting between President Kiir and the UN Security Council delegation, the cabinet affairs minister Martin Elia Lomoro said finer details of the deployment are still being worked on.

Image source, AP

The internet has been restored in Gabon after being cut off for five days but social media is still blocked, reports the AFP news agency.

The internet was blocked after it was announced that President Ali Bongo was re-elected in a closely-fought election.

The opposition has complained of rigging.

After the announcement there were riots and looting.

There has been no official explanation why the internet was cut off.

Governments have to issue an order to internet service providers, who are typically mobile phone operators, to cut off the internet or specific sites, such as Facebook.  

But when only specific sites are cut, people can use internet proxies known as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to make it look like they are in another country, to access the blocked sites.

Read more: How African governments block social media

Meluse Kapatamoyo
BBC Africa, Lusaka

Zambia's Constitutional Court has dismissed a petition by opposition United Party for National Development President Hakainde Hichilema and his running mate Geoffrey Bwalya who were challenging the re-election of Edgar Lungu.

In South Africa, a group of ANC members are protesting against the leadership of President Jacob Zuma this morning (see earlier post).

The called it #OccupyLuthuliHouse, referring to the party's headquarters in Johannesburg, the country's main city.

But the demonstrators have scaled back their protest after increased security.

A BBC reporter has been tweeting from the scene:

But Nomsa has also spotted those who are defending Luthuli House:

Ethiopia's government has acknowledged that there has been some loss of life and injuries after a fire broke out on Saturday at the maximum security Qilinto jail in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The jail is home to some political prisoners.

On Saturday there were reports of intense gunfire and local media said there were about 20 deaths.

A government statement, reported on the state broadcaster, did not specify the numbers dead or injured.

Neither did it mention the cause of the fire, which some have said was started deliberately by people who wanted to escape.

Ethiopia has been hit by anti-government protests in several parts of the country, by some of its largest ethnic groups.

Karen Allen
BBC southern Africa correspondent, Johannesburg

There's heavy security in Johannesburg, South Africa, where disgruntled members of the ruling ANC party are threatening to occupy their own party's headquarters.

Organisers of the demonstrations want President Jacob Zuma to be recalled and are demanding that next year's conference to choose a new party leader is brought forward.

What was initially billed as a mass protest appears to have been scaled down.

Yet members of the ANC say they still plan to occupy party headquarters and hand over a memorandum, arguing that they have lost confidence in the party leadership.

Fears about violence, with the deployment of heavy security in Johannesburg city centre - along with appeals from party grandees for calm - appear to have swayed the protest organisers to present a less confrontational posture. 

Nevertheless, today's events cast a spotlight on the growing fissures within the ANC which has dominated the landscape for the past 22 years.

The BBC's Patience Atuhaire has sent these pictures showing that both the front and back pages of the Ugandan papers are dominated by the national football team's 1-0 win against Comoros on Sunday which saw them qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations - the first time in 38 years:

Cranes are the nickname for the Ugandan national team.

Zimbabwean opposition groups are going to mount a legal challenge to a two-week ban by police on protests in the country.

The ban was imposed at the end of last week, a few days after a court had given an anti-government protest the go-ahead. That protest ended with clashes with police.

At the weekend, President Robert Mugabe criticised judges who gave permission for anti-government protests which later turn violent.

He said the judges showed a reckless disregard for peace, and warned that they should not dare to be negligent when making decisions.

Zimbabwe's News Day newspaper, external reports that one opposition leader, Tendai Biti, accused Mr Mugabe of intimidating the judiciary and violating the constitution.

Image source, AFP

The BBC's Alan Kasujja says he isn't expecting many people to turn up to work in Uganda this morning - and that bosses won't be there to sack those who don't show up.

That's because Ugandans have spent the night celebrating their national football team have qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since 1978 after beating Comoros on Sunday.

It's a sentiment echoed by this tweeter:

Mujje Tulumbe is Luganda for "let's attack".  People have been tweeting using the hashtag to celebrate the win:

The BBC's Patience Atuhaire filmed fans flooding onto the pitch after the match:

Alan Kasujja explained why people are so taken aback. 

"It's been 38 years of waiting. Idi Amin was president of Uganda last time we won," he told Newsday.

Listen to the full interview:

Read more on the match reports from the Africa Cup of Nations games this weekend. 

The eastern gorilla, the world's largest primate, is now critically endangered, external according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, external.

A surge of illegal hunting has reduced the eastern gorilla numbers to just 5,000 across the globe.

They are mostly found in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

"Today is a sad day because the IUCN Red List shows we are wiping out some of our closest relatives," Inger Andersen, IUCN director general, told reporters.

The number of eastern gorillas has declined more than 70% in the past two decades.  

Image source, PA

Read more: The dark side of Uganda's gorilla tourism industry

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